


Not So Alone Anymore

by AAvery



Series: Hyuk/Leo oneshots & stories [3]
Category: EXO (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band), VIXX, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate Eye color, soulmate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 06:32:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10156268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AAvery/pseuds/AAvery
Summary: They say eyes are the window to the soul; the eyes convey emotions and thoughts that even the strongest of poker faces cannot hide. So it comes as no surprise that in order to find your soulmate in life you’d have to look for the eyes.Everyone is born with two different colored eyes. One their own natural color and the other the color of their soulmate’s. The first time you make full eye contact with your soulmate, both yours and the other person’s eyes go to their natural colors.For most people, their eyes were two totally different colors. Like a brown eye and a blue eye. But for Taekwoon, it wasn’t so simple.





	

They say eyes are the window to the soul; the eyes convey emotions and thoughts that even the strongest of poker faces cannot hide. So it comes as no surprise that in order to find your soulmate in life you’d have to look for the eyes.

Everyone is born with two different colored eyes. One their own natural color and the other the color of their soulmate’s. The first time you make full eye contact with your soulmate, both yours and the other person’s eyes go to their natural colors.

For most people, their eyes were two totally different colors. Like a brown eye and a blue eye. But for Taekwoon, it wasn’t so simple.

Being from an Asian country, most people had brown eyes for both their eye color and their soulmate’s eye color. But even then, almost no one had the exact same shade of brown as another. There were always slight variations in the shade or the undertones that helped people to find their soulmate.

But not for Taekwoon.

Both of his eyes were the same exact shade of dark brown. The only slight difference between the two eyes was that his right eye had a small specks of light brown and his left had a small specks of an even darker brown. He knew this because he had spent countless hours just staring at them. These small discrepancies; though, hardly made him feel any better. These types of things are really common in eye colors; having slight discrepancies between eyes was completely normal for natural eyes.

So he resigned to the fact at a young age that he just didn’t have a soulmate.

It had bothered him at first, he was really young after all. All his friends had two different colored eyes. All his classmates had two different colored eyes. Even most of his teachers had two different colored eyes; the others had found their soulmates so at one point even they had two different colored eyes.

His friends had tried to comfort him, telling him that it must just be a mistake of some sort. His classmates made fun of him, telling him he’d be alone forever with no one to love him. His teachers had just looked at him in pity. Most adults had too. Even his parents had stopped reassuring him that he had someone waiting for him after a while.

It didn’t take long for him to start believing it, either.

By the time he was heading off to college, he had absolutely no doubt that he was one of the rare cases of people born without a soulmate. Whatever. He didn’t care anymore anyway. Who could want someone like him anyway? He wasn’t cute or attractive or bold like all his other friends. And he had an inclination towards men so having a soulmate that would most likely turn out to be a girl would just be terrible.

He’d just adopt a child when he grew up… maybe five and live happily without needing a significant other. He was perfectly resigned to that fact.

Sure, when he saw people finding their soulmates it made him feel a little sad if not envious sometimes but he was always really happy to see it happen.

The first time Taekwoon had witnessed the soulmate phenomena at work was in high school. It was a rather funny event to witness and he has never let Hakyeon live it down.

The school was having some pointless school assembly. All the students knew it was completely pointless but most of them were at least being respectable… except this one stupid sophomore. He thought, for whatever ungodly reason, that yelling at the top of his lungs was a good idea. Hakyeon, Taekwoon’s best friend, being the responsible student body president that he was, decided to go deal with the sophomore. Unfortunately, he also dragged Taekwoon with him for “back up”.

The pair calmly walked up to the annoyingly loud boy.

“Excuse me, could you please keep your voice down?” Hakyeon tried to be nice but the boy wasn’t facing him and hadn’t heard him. So Hakyeon tried again, lightly tapping the other’s shoulder.

“Could you please stop yelling?” But still nothing. Taekwoon snickered and took a few steps away from the scene as he saw Hakyeon’s calm demeanor snap. This poor sophomore…

“Yah! Asshat! I’m talking to you!” Hakyeon shouted and grabbed the boy’s shoulder. The younger flew around to face the president, arms flailing wildly, slapping Hakyeon across the face in the process.

“Oh fuck!” The sophomore yelled when he realized just what had happened and who he had accidently slapped. The few students around the two were watching in a tense silence, all of them holding their breath.

Hakyeon turned to the side in pain, holding his face with his hand, trying not to retaliate.

“What is wrong with you?” Hakyeon yelled, turning to face the other, getting up in his face and staring him directly in the eyes.

“I’m sorry,” the younger squeaked out an apology. “I… I didn’t mean to hit you…. Please don’t kill me…” The sophomore stared back at Hakyeon completely terrified.

It was at this point that Taekwoon became extremely confused at the time. Hakyeon grew very quiet and his fuming anger disappeared almost completely. His sudden quietness confused the younger one to silence as well.

A few seconds of silence later, the sophomore gasped quietly.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hakyeon mumbled.

“OH MA GOD!” The other yelled happily before launching himself into Hakyeon’s arms. “I can’t believe it!”

Taekwoon had no idea what was going on until his friend turned to face him, a small smile on his face and a happy sophomore hanging off of him. It wasn’t until Taekwoon noticed that Hakyeon didn’t have two different colored eyes anymore, just two dark brown ones,that he realized what had happened. The sophomore had two lightly colored brown eyes as well.

The obnoxious sophomore, apparently named Jaehwan, and his equally annoying and loud friend Sanghyuk became regulars in their group of friends. And by group of friends, Taekwoon meant the four of them hung out regularly from then on. How anyone, even a soulmate, could constantly put up with Hakyeon’s constant beatings and bossiness, Taekwoon will never know. But Jeahwan did and seemed to do so happily.

Sanghyuk, Taekwoon didn’t exactly know what to think about him. The boy was even younger than Jaehwan, some freshman that Jaehwan had challenged to a ‘who can be the loudest’ competition. He was more annoying too but he never spoke a word to Taekwoon. The younger seemed to even be afraid of Taekwoon, which didn’t make much sense but whatever. Taekwoon didn’t really care. He did; however, notice with a start one day that Sanghyuk had two of the same colored eyes. The one and only time the younger had looked him in the eye, he noticed this. The eyes were the exact same, both with small specks of light brown around the pupil. Sanghyuk never mentioned a soulmate; though, and Taekwoon never cared enough to ask.

The next time Taekwoon felt envious about soulmates was his first day of his junior year in college. He had met this guy at a coffee shop that Hakyeon, Jaehwan, Sanghyuk and he decided to try out.

Both of his eyes were a dark brown, a very similar color to Taekwoon’s. Hakyeon had nudged him with his elbow, Jaehwan looked excited, and Sanghyuk looked like he wasn’t paying attention but Taekwoon wasn’t getting his hopes up. And rightly so, Wonsik, the guy he met, had already found his soulmate. It was evident when a man, Hongbin, walked up to the group and Wonsik almost immediately wrapped an arm around the other’s waist. He too, had his eyes the same color.

Taekwoon knew it. He just didn’t have a soulmate.

He had ignored all his friends’, old and new, pitiful looks then. He only looked up from his latte that day when he noticed Sanghyuk watching him. The younger had been suspiciously quiet that day as well, and he only offered a nod when their eyes met. Taekwoon wondered briefly again where Sanghyuk’s soulmate was as he looked at the light brown specks in both of the blonde’s eyes.

After that he began hearing a lot more stories about soulmates meeting.

This guy Taekwoon met at a party, Seungcheol, told him he met his soulmate when the long haired man, Jeonghan, had angrily turned around to scold him in the middle of class for kicking his desk too many times.

Another time, Taekwoon was partnered with this guy in a course; Namjoon, if Taekwoon remembered correctly. He couldn't remember how exactly they got on the topic of soulmates but the way Namjoon had met his was on par with the level of embarrassment Hakyeon had faced. 

Namjoon hadn't been paying much attention walking to his class one day, which probably wasn't a good idea considering how accident prone he was. He'd stepped right through a piece of rotting wood on a bridge and scrapped up his leg pretty badly. He had drawn a decent sized crowd since he'd sworn rather loudly but all the people who gathered around just kind of stared at him. Except for this one guy, who'd pushed his way through everyone, screaming about how he was a med student. The newcomer, who Namjoon quickly learned was called Seokjin, helped him out of the bridge and demanded that he help Namjoon to the hospital, even if Namjoon's injuries really weren't all that serious. Then on the way there, Seokjin had told completely horrible jokes to help lift Namjoon's spirits. 

They were both pretty happy to find they were soulmates, especially when Seokjin found Namjoon to be the only one who honestly laughed at his jokes. 

A little bit after that, though, when Sanghyuk got accepted into the same university as the rest of them, Taekwoon had started noticing a change in the younger male. 

He noticed Sanghyuk had grown a lot taller than him, first and foremost but also the younger suddenly started… interacting with him more as well. Sanghyuk would tease him endlessly now and seemed to find whatever reason he could to touch Taekwoon in some way. It was really strange at first, especially since the younger had hardly ever talked to him for the past three years. But it didn’t take long for Taekwoon to grow used to Sanghyuk sitting maybe a bit too close to him or when the other begged for Taekwoon to even pay attention to him. Loathe to admit it but Taekwoon maybe just a little bit enjoyed the other antics. Maybe. Just a little bit.

Another time Taekwoon was around when soulmates met was when Hakyeon, Sanghyuk and he were sitting in their dorm’s kitchen. Sanghyuk had just set down three cups of presumably something drinkable before he slid into a chair across from Hakyeon, next to Taekwoon in a way that their shoulders and thighs were touching. Taekwoon refrained from rolling his eyes at the action before sipping what he found to be an expertly made latte. He hummed in thanks to Sanghyuk, who looked rather proud of himself… until Hakyeon gagged on whatever he had been drinking.

“What the flip is this?!” He yelled after spitting back some bright blue colored liquid into his mug.

“Oh, I boiled some Gatorade.” The younger said, holding back a smile and taking a sip of whatever he made himself.

“What is wrong with you?” Taekwoon asked quietly, trying to hold back his own smile. He was trying to pretend that the fact Sanghyuk had made him one of his favorites while Hakyeon got boiled Gatorade didn’t make him happy.

“Nothing… I made you something nice, though.”

“Wow! I see how it is! Picking favorites.” Hakyeon immediately began complaining.

“Sorry, Hakyeon-hyung, I can go make you something better. I just thought it would be funny.”

“Fuck off, I can make my own damn tea,” Hakyeon said before he got up and headed back into the kitchen.

“Well, you’ve done it now,” Taekwoon said, still holding back laughter. Sanghyuk giggled before shrugging and taking a sip of his own tea.

The pair sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes until another inhabitant of their dorm came storming into the common area and sat down on a chair in a huff; sipping angrily at some fancy looking bubble tea.

“What’s got you in a mood?” Sanghyuk asked the brunette across from them. Taekwoon thought he remembered him vaguely… Sehun maybe?

“Freaking Jongin won’t leave me alone,” he complained. It was then that Taekwoon noticed Sehun didn’t have two different colored eyes anymore. “Ever since yesterday.”

“What happened yesterday?” Sanghyuk asked.

“You’re soulmates…” Taekwoon answered for him. Sehun nodded.

“And now he won’t stop hanging off of me! I just want to take a freaking nap!”

“Why don’t you talk to him?”

“I’ve tried that, he won’t listen!”

“Slap him.” Hakyeon said coming back into the room with a new cup of something other than boiled Gatorade.

“Hmm tempting…”

“Well whatever you do, it’ll work out.” Sanghyuk piped up. “You’re soulmates after all.”

“Yeah… you’re right.”

That was the first time in a while Taekwoon wished he had a soulmate.

He spent a lot of time thinking after that incident. Why had he so suddenly wanted a soulmate even though he had resigned a long time ago to the fact that he didn’t have one? It didn’t make sense… yet he still felt so empty. The prospect of having someone out there waiting for him made him feel so happy but then he remember he didn’t have anyone.

That night he stood in front of the mirror in his dorm, staring into it at his eyes.

“Woonie! You’ve been staring at your reflection for hours! What’re you even doing?” Hakyeon yelled to him from the other room.

“Nothing.” He yelled back. He didn’t want to have to explain to Hakyeon that he was feeling depressed. Sure they’d been friends for years now but he was embarrassed to admit this defeat.

“I don’t believe you, but if you’re having fun whatever then.”

In all honesty, Taekwoon really didn’t know what he was doing. What did he really expect to see? Nothing had changed. His eyes were still the exact same shade of brown with light brown specks in his right eye and dark brown specks in his left.

Except that wasn’t exactly the case anymore.

With a start, Taekwoon realized he couldn’t find any light brown specks in his right eye anymore. He slammed his hands against the table in front of him, leaning closer to the mirror to make sure he had seen correctly.

He had. Both eyes now contained only dark brown specks around the pupil, like how his left eye had only had for the longest time.

 How he hadn’t noticed that sooner is beyond him. But this meant he had already met his soulmate… how was he supposed to know who it was? How long ago had his eyes changed? It could be so many people…. This wasn’t good.

“You okay in there?” Hakyeon called.

“No.”

“Alright, just checking! Don’t break anything!”

He ignored Hakyeon in favor of continuing to stare at his own two eyes. How was he ever going to find his soulmate now? Now he really had lost his soulmate forever, how was he ever going to find someone with the same shade of brown as him with only light… brown… specks…

How could he have been so stupid? He’d even noticed it on their first meeting.

Taekwoon rushed into the main room of their dorm.

“Woah what’s wrong? Did you start a fire? I told you not to break anything.” Hakyeon joked as Taekwoon dug around his backpack for his phone.

“Do you know where Sanghyuk is?” Taekwoon didn’t even bother answering Hakyeon’s questions.

“Uhm… no… should I? I can call Jaehwan he probably knows.” Hakyeon offered, clearly confused as he watched the other have what looked like a complete mental breakdown.

“No don’t bother, I’ll find him.” Taekwoon answered as he found his phone and immediately began searching through his contact list. When had he gotten so many numbers?

“Is everything okay? You seem disgruntled… Hyuk didn’t do anything to you did he? I swear that kid…”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“Oh okay… well when you get it sorted out you better tell me. I don’t want my friends fighting.” Taekwoon nodded in response and left the room as he found the number he was looking for. He quickly pressed the button to call and put the phone up to his ear as he left his dorm.

“Hello?” Sanghyuk’s voice answered only after two rings.

“Where are you?”

“In my room, studying… what’s up? You never call me.”

“Meet me outside your dorm hall in ten minutes.”

“O-okay… are you okay? You sound frantic.”

“I’ll explain when I get there.” Taekwoon hung up after that. He’d never been very good with phone calls. It hurt slightly to know that Sanghyuk remembered that he’d never once called the other… it made him kind of wish he had.

That was in the past now though, and no matter how rocky their pasts had been in relation to the other… he was going to make sure it didn’t continue like that. If he was right about everything, that is.

He rushed out of his dorm and into the chilly November air… maybe he should’ve grabbed a jacket. As he came up on the freshman hall he saw Sanghyuk was already outside waiting. When the younger noticed Taekwoon walking over to him, he ran to meet him.

“Hey, you okay? What’s happened?” Taekwoon didn’t really have a plan going into this so he settled on being his usual brazen self.

“Where’s your soulmate?”

“W-What?” Sanghyuk stopped his fussing and looked at him wide eyed. Taekwoon briefly thought that their shared eye color looked better on Hyuk than on him.

“Both you’re eyes are the same color, which means you’ve met your soulmate. Where are they?”

“I-I don’t know. I don’t have one.” The younger was looking anywhere but Taekwoon now.

“What do you mean?”

“Where is this coming from all of sudden… you know its eleven o’clock at night right?”

“Yes I know, I also know its freaking freezing so just humor me and answer the question.”

“Fine but first,” he took off his jacket and handed it to Taekwoon. “Next time wear a jacket when you feel like interrogating someone outside.” Taekwoon reluctantly took the jacket, not at all thinking of how nice it smelled.

“What about you? Your eyes have been the same since I’ve met you, don’t you have one?” Sanghyuk tried to change the subject.

“Yeah but that’s not important right now…”

“What? You’re asking me the same thing. Why is my answer more important than yours?”

“If you answer mine first, I’ll answer yours.”

“What?”

“I’m older than you.”

“That’s not fair at all. Pulling the age card like that!”

“Just do it.”

“Fine, my eyes have always been the same color. Since I was born. The only difference I’ve ever been able to find between them is…”

“Light brown specks and dark brown.”

“Y-yeah, how… how did you…” The younger looked really confused now.

“Because that’s the way my eyes used to be… until I noticed something had changed.” There wasn’t much light illuminating their surroundings but Taekwoon didn’t need light to see Sanghyuk was blushing now.

“W-what are you saying?”

“I’m saying exactly what you think.”

“How can you know for sure?”

“Who else have you met with the exact same shade of brown for both their own and their soulmates eyes?”

“N-no one… But I-I didn’t think you liked me very much…” It was Taekwoon’s turn to be confused.

“What?”

“I was always ‘that annoying friend of Jaehwan’ right? You were always so cold and scary I could never bring myself to say anything to you the first few years I knew you.”

“But you don’t think that anymore? What changed?”

“I don’t know… I guess I just kinda realized you were just shy… not cold and uncaring but quiet. That made me want to bring emotion to your face, more specifically your smile.”

Taekwoon didn’t say anything.

“S-sorry. That’s kind of embarrassing.”

“Yeah. But I’m happy.”

“What?”

“Hearing someone say that they care about me… makes me happy.”

“Y-yeah, I care about you a lot.” Sanghyuk scratched the back of his head nervously. “I don’t really know what to do now… How is this soulmate meeting supposed to go?”

“I d-don’t know… you could always just… kiss me.”

Without even hesitating, Sanghyuk stepped closer to Taekwoon wrapping his arms around his elder’s waist.

“I could… if that’s what you want.” Taekwoon returned the gesture and wrapped his arms around the younger’s neck.

“Shut up.” Sanghyuk laughed happily before connecting their lips for the first of many times.

“I care about you a lot, too.” Taekwoon said when they pulled apart.

“I love you,” Hyuk returned causing Taekwoon to blush.

“Don’t be stupid.”

“But it’s true!”

“Why?”

“Stop ruining the moment. I just have for a while now without even needing to know that we’re soulmates… Don’t give me that look, can’t you just accept it?” Hyuk whined leaning his forehead against Taekwoon’s.

“Fine…” Taekwoon conceded, giving a small smile which caused Sanghyuk to grin back at him. “Only if you let me crash here, I don’t wanna walk home.”

“Of course, Jaehwan’s going to stay with Hakyeon anyway.”

“All the more reason to stay here.” Sanghyuk laughed before leading Taekwoon towards his dorm room.

And as Taekwoon fell asleep that night next to his soulmate, an arm slug around the younger’s waist and his face buried in the others sweet smelling hair, he realized just how lucky he was. After spending practically his whole life believing he’d be alone forever, having someone to hold filled the hole he knew had always been there.

“I love you, too.” He mumbled into Sanghyuk’s hair after he was sure the younger had fallen asleep. But as the younger shifted slightly against him, pushing closer to him, he realized his mistake and he didn’t even need to look to know Hyuk had the biggest smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> I am willing to Beta any kind of work, all you must do is ask. If you need someone to edit, help revise, hash out plot and characterization with, or just help you get the confidence to post the story, I'm your guy.
> 
> You can message me at AAvery151@gmail.net if you're interested.
> 
> Thanks for reading


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